Author Archives: Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D
Climate-Change Initiatives Must Be Affordable Issue Brief
The day after his inauguration, President Barack Obama awoke to find himself in charge of a government that is spending 25% of gross domestic product but taking in only 17%. At least, that’s what the Congressional Budget Office [Read More...]
The Defense Industry Outlook Through 2012 Remarks at Raytheon Headquarters
I’ve been asked to spend thirty minutes this morning assessing the outlook for the defense industry over the next several years — the “Obama years,” as they will probably come to known.
Thirty minutes sounds like [Read More...]
Does The Defense Industry Need To Be Restructured? Issue Brief
Last summer the Defense Science Board issued a study entitled Creating an Effective National Security Industrial Base for the 21st Century. It warned that a crisis is coming because America’s military is not able to tap the full [Read More...]
Missile Defense: The Boost-Phase Advantage Research Study
Ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads and other mechanisms of mass destruction are the most potent weapons that America’s defenders face. The number of ballistic missiles in global arsenals has declined considerably since the end of the cold [Read More...]
F-22 Deters Better Than Nuclear Weapons In Many Cases Issue Brief
Lockheed Martin chief executive Robert J. Stevens made waves in the media recently by suggesting his company’s F-22 fighter might serve as a substitute for nuclear weapons in deterring aggression. Stevens told a Reuters defense and aerospace summit [Read More...]
Economic Security: A George Bush Lesson for Mr. Obama Issue BriefLike Ebenezer Scrooge awakening on Christmas morning to the error of his ways, George W. Bush has belatedly discovered the danger of relying too much on market forces. Last week he agreed to provide bridge loans to imperiled [Read More...]
F-22 Fighter: Good for the Economy? Issue BriefOn December 10 the New York Times ran a lengthy story by Christopher Drew about the Air Force’s F-22 fighter, saying that Pentagon plans to terminate production of the plane put President-elect Barack Obama’s military and economic goals [Read More...]
Telling the Aerospace Story in an Era of Economic Decline Remarks to the Aerospace Industries Association Communications CouncilThis is just about the bleakest holiday season I can remember, thanks to the unwinding of economic excesses that built up earlier in the decade.
I’m sure holidays were much worse during [Read More...]
Navy Plan for Huge Network Looks Likely to Fail Issue BriefIn October of 2000, during the waning days of the Clinton Administration, the Department of the Navy awarded the biggest information-services contract in the history of the federal government. It was called the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), [Read More...]
Aerospace Plea Raises Broader Economic Questions Issue BriefThe aerospace industry has begun a campaign to convince the next administration that support of its programs will help bolster the ailing economy. The industry’s trade association paid for a full-page advertisement in the December 2 Washington Post [Read More...]